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The heavy rain, the first for many weeks, will do something to bring new life to the heaths. On Saturday we walked through Ogdens, each step on the path throwing up a cloud of dust, the countryside around feeling positively stressed. The animals forage for what little grass there is and one pony makes a meal from a small gorse bush. The plants are so dry that they crackle as the cows pull at them. A crow walks with funereal pace from a clump of pines and, as we get closer, flies to hunt afresh further afield. The remnant of a discarded egg shell suggests it has a nest with youngsters somewhere close by but we do not locate it.

The drought has held many plants back and those that have braved it are stunted for want of nourishment. We find only one small patch of heath dog violets, an unscented species readily identified by both habitat and its creamy yellow spurs. Heath milkwort close by has thrown out a solitary flowering stem, the proximity of the two species suggesting the existence of a micro climate. An iridescent green beetle scurries for cover as we roll back a log and the tiny ants resident beneath it stream out to defend their nest. Lapwing have returned to the valley and offer a brief glimpse of their tumbling aerial mating display. Dropping to the ground, they disappear into the scarcely damp mire before flying up in agitation as ponies invade their territory.

Surprisingly, there are still moist areas. In one hollow, young water lily leaves are spreading across the surface of a shallow pond, while the white flowers of water crowfoot decorate its margins. A quartet of miniscule buff-capped fungi, each with a tiny dimple on top and folded gills beneath, stick out from an algae-covered bank like ornamented cup hooks. Where ancient wheel tracks deepened by erosion hold seepage from the peat, the first round-leaved red sundews are stretched out to ensnare insects. Alongside, yellowish powder-puff catkins of creeping willow are borne on ground-hugging stems so slender that in any other species they would be no more than wispy twigs.